Party in the botanic gardens

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How sweet it is ... a rainbow lorikeet, not yet legless, sups deeply and contentedly at the nectar of the red blossoms on a flowering Schotia brachypetala in Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens.Photo: Nick Moir

Visitors to the Royal Botanic Gardens may need to keep an eye
out over the next few weeks for paralytic parrots.

The city's rainbow lorikeets have began flocking to the gardens
to indulge in the nectar of Schotia brachypetala, a tree
that is now flowering.

"It produces a lot of sweet nectar, a nectar that is a sugary
juice. If it ferments in the heat of the sun it can produce
alcohol," the gardens' curator, Ian Innes, said yesterday.

Birds over-indulging on the tree appeared to become tipsy, he
said. Parrots tucking into the nectar yesterday ignored a
Herald photographer, who was able to approach within a few
centimetres. They interrupted their partying only for an occasional
vigorous shake of their heads.

Larry Vogelnest, senior veterinarian at Taronga Zoo, said
lorikeets in northern Australia were known to become intoxicated on
fermenting fruit. "Basically they behave like drunk people,
staggering around and unco-ordinated."

But Dr Vogelnest said the reported behaviour yesterday of the
birds in the gardens made him wonder if there was "something else
in the nectar, some chemical agent, rather than ethanol ... that is
making them high".

"The lorikeets get right into it," said Mr Innes. The tree's
spectacular red flowers had been opening this week, to the delight
of the birds. "It gradually opens, a few flowers each day. It will
be at its best this week and next week."

He said the tree, a member of the pea family, was not widely
grown in Australia. "It is only grown in a few botanic gardens and
in some very old colonial gardens."

While the specimen in the gardens was just seven or eight metres
tall and only 25 years old, bigger ones dripped with nectar.
"Camden Park [the old Macarthur estate near Camden] has a very old
one," he said. "It is easily double the size of ours."

Although most of the tired and emotional customers patronising
the gardens' tree this week have been parrots, Mr Innes expected
cockatoos would soon learn about the venue before it inevitably
closes for business again in a few weeks. "I am sure they will have
a go at it."